Incredible Marine Reenlists Despite Losing Eyesight, Both Legs

The following story is excerpted from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Marine Cpl. Matthew Bradford is sworn in by Lt. Col. David Barnes. Bradford lost his eyesight and both legs after a roadside bomb exploded under him in Iraq's Al Anbar province in 2007.

After all he's been through, the only real regret Marine Cpl. Matthew Bradford says he has now is not being able to return to combat duty in Iraq.

But Wednesday, Bradford, 23, made Marine Corps history, becoming the first blind double amputee to re-enlist. In keeping with service tradition, Bradford was honorably discharged and allowed to say a few words as a civilian before re-enlisting.

The outdoor re-enlistment ceremony was held a few hundred feet from the Center for the Intrepid, dedicated just 11 days after Bradford was seriously wounded in Iraq.

It was at the cutting-edge rehabilitation center, funded with $50 million in private contributions, that he began his arduous and painful journey in June 2007 to learn to walk again with prosthetic limbs.

Bradford, who grew up in Winchester, Ky., and Dinwiddie, Va., had made up his mind that he was going to deploy as many times as the Marines wanted him to when he was hurt a few months into his first tour of Iraq.

A rifleman, he was on patrol in Al Anbar province and trying to help clear an area of roadside bombs when one of them exploded right under him the afternoon of Jan. 18, 2007.

Bradford lost his eyesight, and he had a fractured right hand and fragmentation wounds to the lower abdominal area. But what he said he hated the most was losing his legs. He required amputations below the knee on the right leg and above the knee on the left.

His physical therapist, Matt Parker, said Bradford put his complete trust in his rehabilitation team, at a time when the Intrepid Center was "extremely busy" with a first wave of severely wounded troops.

Since then, Bradford has inspired others by riding his hand cycle, with directions called out to him, in the Marine Corps Marathon. Last year, he hiked 10 miles of desert terrain in the grueling Bataan Memorial Death March in White Sands, N.M.

Bradford credited his years of playing football and basketball as a youth, and the never-give-up attitude of the Marine Corps, with preparing him for his recovery. He's learned to read Braille and works on a computer with the aid of special software. Friday, he received a promotion to corporal, based on leadership.